Joe Powers

1st Lt. Joe

H. Powers Jr. Halstead Blue Three a . Combat b . 30 January, 1944 c . 6 1st Fighter Squadron , 56th Group d . 1340 h ou rs e . Vicinity of Meppen f . Undercast at approximately 6 ,000 ft. CAVU. g . FW-190 (new type) h . One FW-190 (new type) destroyed . i . I was fly ing Halstead Blue 3 with Lt. R.S. Johnson leading. We were on our way to r/v when we spotted 12 t/e e/a about 15,000 ft. below. We went down and Blue 1 leveled off behind an Me-210 and fired. The 210 disintegrated and went through the overcast burning. A short while later we again went down – this time on 2 Me-109's. Blue 1 fired at the leader. The 109 went to pieces under this fire and fell through the overcast. We again pulled up and almost immediately spotted an FW 190 below. Blue 1 again went down and I took up the cover position again. However this 190 saw Blue 1 co ming and went into the overcast and Blue 1 pulled up. I was above and I saw the 190 still in the overcast so I told Blue 1 to cover me and I went down on the e/a. He came back up out of the clouds just as I suspected and I pulled in under him and started closing very slowly on him. He was keeping his eyes on Blue 1 who was above him and he never did see me. I opened fire at approximately 300 yards and closed to 100 yards. The e/a went to pieces under my fire and his tail just missed my ship when it came off. This action took place at approximately 6,000 feet. I pulledup and joined my leader and we proceeded home. I wish to say here that the success of the whole mission was made possible by the close cooperation of the whole flight. Blue 2 and 4 did excellent jobs of flying and Lt. Hamilton (Blue 4) had me covered perfectly all the time. I claim one FW-190 destroyed and confirm one Me-210 and one Me-109 destroyed by Lt. R.S. Johnson.